Colonial Beach 77-year-old gets new all-electric car

Pocahontas Schuck squealed as the truck pulling a trailer loaded with five cars turned onto McKinney Boulevard in Colonial Beach. 

The 77-year-old, sporting glittery nails and chewing gum, pulled out a tablet and an iPhone. Jugging both devices, she attempted to record the arrival of "FiFi," the white-and-orange Fiat 500e all-electric vehicle she purchased earlier this spring in Monterey, Calif. 

"Hi, baby car up there!" Schuck cooed as the trailer that had carried her new car across the country pulled into the Food Lion parking lot.

She named the car "FiFi," short for "Josephine." She's already ordered her Virginia Clean Special Fuel vanity license plates, which will read "FiFi EV," for "electric vehicle."

Schuck, a retired middle school science teacher and National Park ranger who is known as "Pokie" to her friends, calls herself an environmentalist and "a pioneer."

"I was one of the first women rangers in the Park Service in the 1970s," she said. "I was the first woman ranger at Richmond Battlefield. So I was a pioneer in being one of the first female rangers, and now I'm a pioneer again in having an electric vehicle."

According to data provided by the Department of Motor Vehicles, there are 4,674 all-electric vehicles registered in Virginia, out of 8.3 million total registered vehicles. That's up about 1,000 from this time last year.

Schuck was introduced to the Fiat 500e by her son, a chaplain in the Air Force who is stationed in California. He had a three-year lease on the vehicle, which is a common practice in the state.

"[The car] is bright orange with white leather and silk interior," Schuck said. "It's just gorgeous, and I've been eyeing it for a couple of years. I flew out to visit my son for 11 days and we were just chatting and I said, 'I love your car' and so we just drank another cup of coffee and I said, 'You know, I want to buy it.'"

In California, electric cars are often sold at auction when the leases are up. These older model cars are then sold to customers. 

Schuck's car, a 2013 model with 18,000 miles on it, had been purchased used at auction and was sold on the San Francisco Craigslist website. She bought it for $6,291.

"You can't even buy a golf car for that," she said. "It would have been sold new three years ago for $37,000."

All car manufacturers now make and sell electric vehicles (EVs), said Alleyn Harned, executive director of Virginia Clean Cities, a coalition affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy that promotes the use of alternative fuels and vehicles. 

But EVs are more widely available in California and the seven other states that have adopted its zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) program, Harned said. 

"Virginia chose not to participate in those standards," he said. "So manufacturers are focusing sales in states that have."

Maryland is the closest state to Virginia that has adopted the ZEV program, which requires that zero-emission vehicles make up a certain percentage of an automaker's sales. ZEV states are also committed to having at least 3.3 million ZEVs operating on their roadways by 2025.

Schuck's Fiat 500e is sold in California and Oregon only. She paid $900 to have the car shipped across the country. 

Locally, new and used Nissan LEAFs, which is the world's best-selling electric car, are available at Leckner and Pohanka Nissan dealerships in Fredericksburg. New and used Chevrolet Volts are in stock at Radley Chevrolet. 

"It's an increasing used-vehicle market," Harned said. "You can get one for under $10,000. They're more affordable than people think."

Schuck said that she can charge her car at her house using a regular extension cord. 

"It takes six to eight hours and I can drive it for 97 miles," she said.

She can also charge it at public charging stations, which are beginning to proliferate around the country. A map at plugshare.com shows the location of public charging stations as well as residential charging stations that other EV owners have made available. The map shows about 20 public and residential charging stations in the greater Fredericksburg area.

Schuck also has an app for her phone that shows the location of charging stations. She plans to use it when she drives FiFi to visit her sister near Virginia Tech. She said she pays a flat rate of $2.10 to charge the car.

That equates to less than $1 per gallon of gasoline, Harned said.

"It's not really the case that these vehicles cause electric bills to go up," he said. "Because you're saving so much in gas."

Electric vehicle owners in Virginia must pay a $64 fee in addition to the motor vehicle sales tax at the time of registration and each year at renewal. This fee is supposed to cover the gas tax drivers pay when they fill up, which is used to fund transportation infrastructure. 

Schuck can't wait to use FiFi to replace her old Honda with 88,000 miles on it. She said her little car is small but powerful.

"I told my son it would give me whiplash," she said. "This thing whizzes. The brakes are as good as a Mercedes."

Anyone who wants to test-drive FiFi is welcome, Schuck said.

"That's the fun," she said.

Source: Colonial Beach 77-year-old gets new all-electric car